


Eclipse

by doridoripawaa



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gay, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Game(s), Stargazing, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23752504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doridoripawaa/pseuds/doridoripawaa
Summary: Dimitri needs to put his mind at ease after a bad dream.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 8
Kudos: 51





	Eclipse

Garreg Mach was in dire need of repairs.

The winds of warfare had finally settled down, and the skies of Fódlan were once again shining with sunny rays of peace. However, much like any other storm, the aftermath had left behind debris that needed to be tidied up.

Broken. Dismembered. Shattered.

Things and people alike had been ravaged by this war. Old and young, rich and poor, male and female, and everyone in between, had suffered. Not even King Dimitri of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, the arguable victor of the war, had escaped unscathed.

On the contrary, his position and all the responsibilities it entailed had made him especially susceptible to damage.

The personal injuries that the king had faced left him with scars both on his body and soul. While the ferocious stab wound inflicted upon his shoulder was starting to heal —in fact, he could lift his arm a little higher today than he could yesterday—the gash it had left on his psyche remained deep and fresh. 

How was he supposed to recover, especially after seeing a gift, given in kindness, adoration, and appreciation, literally turned on him in order to stab him in the back?

Rather, in the front.

The final battle against his stepsister had taken place half a moon ago, but even now he still had nightmares in which the scene replayed itself over and over in his grieving mind. Sometimes he saw it from his own perspective. Sometimes he saw it from the view of Areadbhar, and he could feel himself tear into her flesh and witness firsthand as the blood would gush out and surround him, hot and sticky. Sometimes Edelgard was still a monster, which made his act one of mercy. Sometimes, instead of gazing into seething red eyes surrounded by tormented, frazzled white locks, he found himself face to face with mischievous but proud purple eyes framed by soft, bronze hair framing the face of an innocent child.

It was on nights like these sleep eluded him the most, and, unfortunately, tonight was one of them.

The heels of his boots clacked softly against the stone hallways as he wandered around the monastery. He expected nobody else would be awake this late at night, so he felt free to amble around aimlessly, trying to find something— _ anything _ to distract him from his thoughts.

Dimitri did not wish to be alone inside his head.

Meandering around the empty Garreg Mach, the young man had found himself at the foot of the Cathedral. His subconscious must have guided him here with one particular reason: to pray for his stepsister's—Edelgard’s soul.

Dimitri's soles were heaving as he lifted his feet to trudge up the stairs. The Cathedral loomed before him, no less beautiful at night, but somehow all the more imposing in light of everything that had happened. The debris that scattered around the ground did not help to alleviate the eerie atmosphere, either.

Dimitri craned back his neck to gaze up at the ceiling, which was pockmarked by gaping holes. Some had been patched up by new stones, but they were clearly newer and fresher, standing out against the dusty background of the aged stone and tile that had formed the foundation of Garreg Mach a thousand years prior. 

Dimitri could catch a glimpse of stars twinkling against the backdrop of the blanket of night. They looked so distant, so minuscule, so insignificant and powerless against the expanse of the darkness that loomed around them.

Could tiny stars of hope truly illuminate all of the darkness that covered Fódlan after the war?

Feeling somewhat disheartened, Dimitri lowered his gaze back to the Cathedral before him.

The sight that greeted him almost restored his faith in the future.

Standing beneath one of those gaping holes that marred the Cathedral, a familiar figure stood bathed in silver moonlight. Its radiance was dusty as it streaked through the room, but it positively glowed as it reflected off of a high golden collar, white robes, and soft mint locks of hair.

As if he could feel the single blue eye boring into the back of his head, the man turned his head to see who had entered the holy grounds. 

"Dimitri," he murmured, and no sooner had the words left his lips than they spread into a gentle, sympathetic smile. "Can't sleep?"

How could those emerald eyes always see right through him?

"Prof— I mean, Your Grace," Dimitri stammered. He stood frozen in place, still trying to absorb the scene in front of him. The pile of rubble before the altar—which had actually decreased in size ever since the Blue Lions had returned to Garreg Mach—seemed insignificant even as it loomed behind the Archbishop. As moonlight filtered in from the sky above and through the stained glass windows of the Cathedral, that rubble was nothing more than a mere speck that faded behind his glowing glory. A head of silver. A kaleidoscope of rainbow colors spackling his body. 

Dimitri wasn’t sure that Byleth was even real—but the warm hands that grabbed his own calloused ones definitely were.

"Professor is fine," Byleth assured him as he approached Dimitri and gently lifted the blonde’s larger hands, cupping them within his own. "Byleth is better." A bright crimson suddenly flashed across his face. "Although… how you called me the other night… would be best."

Dimitri almost didn’t believe his eye. His professor, flustered? Did Dimitri truly have the right to see him in this manner? And even more so, to be the cause of it? 

"My beloved," Dimitri whispered as he pulled his hands out, interlacing their fingers together. "You can always see into my innermost thoughts. It's almost concerning." He chuckled softly. "Yes, I am unable to sleep, and I had hoped that a walk in the fresh air would clear my mind. But more importantly… what are you doing awake at this hour?"

Byleth closed his eyes and pondered for a minute. "Come with me," he said at last, unlocking his fingers from Dimitri's. However, he then swiftly grasped the king's palm with his right hand and beckoned him forward with his left.

"That was not an ans—" Dimitri began, but his breath caught in his throat when Byleth led him to the spot where he had been standing, beneath the silver glow of the moon. Seeing his professor, his friend, his most trusted ally, his fiancé,  _ his beloved _ , bathed in an ethereal silver— Dimitri was at a loss for words. 

"Look up," Byleth whispered. "I want to show you something."

_ What could possibly be more captivating than you? _ Nevertheless Dimitri complied, if only to appease his fiancé.

The view took that strangled breath away.

Shimmering like a sea of fish, sparkling stars speckled the night sky. Some were clustered together in what appeared to be patterns, while others took the stage as sole performers, shining with extra vivacity in their determination to steal the spotlight. 

The sky was mostly clear, but some wispy clouds also trickled across the beautiful blackness above. Some stars were unobstructed from his view while others were partially concealed, but nonetheless their light shone brilliantly to reach his awed azure eye.

"I wish the clouds would dissipate," Byleth mused as he tilted his head back to peer at the crystal-studded canvas above them. "The stars are absolutely stunning, and I would hate to miss any of them."

"They're still incredible." Dimitri shook his head gently, sending his shaggy blonde locks flicking back and forth across his face. "In fact, these clouded stars have a kind of melancholic beauty to them. Despite their difficult situation, their light perseveres and shines through to make an impact on others." Indeed, their light still managed to reach his impaired vision. "Thank you for sharing them with me." 

He turned his head slightly in order to look at Byleth. Much to his surprise, Byleth was looking right back at him. 

"You know, my father…" There was a pause. Of course recollecting memories of Jeralt would be painful; although Dimitri remembered the event to have taken place five years ago, for Byleth it must have felt like only a few months. "He once told me something about the stars." He tipped his chin back once more, and Dimitri could feel his cheeks grow hot at the sight of the other man's sleek jawline. "He said that whenever we lose someone, whether a warrior, a family member, or a civilian, their souls make a new home in the sky as a star." Byleth raised his hand up towards the hole in the ceiling and flexed his fingers. "Always watching over us." Slowly those long, slender fingers curled inward, balling into a fist. "Just out of reach, but always watching over us." He lowered his hand back to his side again, keeping it in a tight squeeze. "I looked for my mother’s star often."

"Everyone becomes a star…" Dimitri mumbled thoughtfully, and now he turned his attention back to the sky as well. "Even my father. Even my stepmother. Even Glenn."

_ Even Edelgard? _

"I never took your father to be the religious type," he commented idly, trying to distract himself from that dark thoughts that were beginning to gape widely at him, trying to suck him down into their twisting, murky depths. "After all, he left the Church for so long."

"He wasn't religious," Byleth agreed. "But I don't think this was a belief he picked up from the Knight of Seiros or Lady Rhea."

"As intimidating as he appeared from afar, and as ferocious as the legends made him out to be, your father was a very considerate man," Dimitri commented with a wistful smile on his face. “I am willing to bet that he told you that souls become stars so that you would not feel the deep pangs of sorrow that come when you lose an ally.” 

Although he personally had no experience with living among a band of mercenaries, he had to imagine that it was somewhat akin to living with the Blue Lions. A group of not merely comrades, but friends who shared in the joys and sorrows of life, in triumphs and trials, in supper time and sleep time alike. Living together and working together. Losing his birth family had been difficult enough; had Dimitri lost anyone else from his newfound family, he would not be able to bear that pain. "He must have wanted to console his child."

The following pause seemed to stretch long and cold. Dimitri was not one to mind a peaceful silence, but the subtle frown tugging down the corners of his beloved's lips gave him cause for concern. Byleth had never been particularly expressive, but recently Dimitri had been able to pick up on the minute changes in his mood. War dulled most people's senses, but curiously, Byleth's time with the Blue Lions had made him seem more alive.

"I am… not sure that that was the case," Byleth admitted at last. "Even in my youth, I was always the Ashen Demon. Nothing really aroused my sentiment. Apparently I never smiled, not until I started teaching at the academy."

Although his skin was still pallid and his fighting skills were a force to be reckoned with, Dimitri sincerely believed that "Ashen Demon" was an epithet that no longer accurately described his professor.

And he planned to let him know just that.

"Well, if souls are stars," Dimitri began, "I dare say that you would be the sun."

"The sun?" Byleth echoed. The slight raise in his tone, his sudden shift in posture, and the glint in his eye that could have easily been a trick of the light: these were all hints to Dimitri, in his intimate knowledge of his beloved, that the man was genuinely surprised and confused by this declaration.

"You are brighter and warmer than all of us," Dimitri went on. "You lit up my life and illuminated a safe path for me to follow, out of the darkness. The sun brings light to this earth every day, on good days and bad, and offers a means for people to see their way forward, no matter how strenuous or challenging the tasks ahead of them may be." 

He had lifted Fódlan out of its darkness, and Dimitri had faith that as the new Archbishop, he would continue to lead the continent into a glorious new dawn.

Much to the king's surprise, Byleth chuckled once he concluded. "The sun is not the largest or warmest star," he reminded his student gently. "Did you learn nothing from your professor? It is merely the closest."

Dimitri turned his gaze away from the sky and stepped to the side, closing the gap between himself and Byleth. "Oh, I am aware, Professor," he murmured. 

Another step. 

"The other stars are dead and gone, but your soul is right here, where I can still bask in its warmth every day." Step. "And if I may be so bold— no, as King of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, I will be so bold— to ask if I may share in its presence every day for the rest of my life." 

At this impromptu proclamation, Byleth could not help but fix his gaze onto Dimitri, who now stood so close that he was able to reach forward and grasp Byleth's warm hands within his clumsier, colder ones. "Please continue to light up my path, my beloved," Dimitri breathed as he lifted those slender hands to his face, planting a gentle kiss on each one.

"I humbly accept my role, Your Majesty," Byleth responded, grinning widely as crimson fluttered across his cheeks. "However, I want to make one thing clear. If I am the sun, then your soul is undoubtedly the moon."

The moon? Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "Professor, the moon is not a star," he stated flatly.

"You are still among the land of the living, so you are the moon," Byleth insisted. "You share your realm with the stars, taking on their burdens even though you need not do so." 

A pang of guilt washed through Dimitri at the thought of all the stars—all the souls—that would not leave his conscience, not ever. "At times your light is obscured, but it never fades away. It always returns, as strong and bright as ever. And that light guides the lost souls of the night when the sun is unable to help."

Now it was Dimitri's turn to become flustered. He felt so small and humble, so unworthy of such high praise. "The moon is nothing without the sun's light," he pointed out. "I…" He slid even closer and nuzzled his nose into the older man's seafoam green locks. "I need you," he mumbled into his ear. 

"And I need you," Byleth whispered back, his breath hot against Dimitri's neck and face. "Who will lead Faerghus into the light when I am far away in Garreg Mach?"

"Ah, but you are the central light," Dimitri pointed out. "The main light for the land."

"We are equally important," Byleth insisted, and his tone suggested there was no room for argument. "The sun and the moon."

The sun and the moon, always supporting one another no matter the distance between them.

"Which star do you think Edelgard is, my beloved?" A sudden question. Dimitri would not be able to rest until he knew that his stepsister had a soul among the sky as well. 

That she had been saved.

"She is not a star. She is Mars. According to Petra, that is the god of war."

The red planet. The god of war.

Fitting. 

Basking in the light of the stars, the two souls who had led Fódlan into a new era spent the rest of the night pointing out stars and constellations, greeting their loved ones and recounting stories of their glory—stories of their light.

But as the dawn approached, they began to grow silent. The sun and the moon simply enjoyed their moment of peace together, with their bodies and their souls in a warm, vibrant embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for My Beloved, a Dimileth zine! I am so honored to have worked on this zine with all of the amazing contributors! Viva la Dimileth.


End file.
